97 research outputs found
Small RNAs and extracellular vesicles in filarial nematodes: from nematode development to diagnostics
Parasitic nematodes have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to communicate with their hosts in order to survive and successfully establish an infection. The transfer of RNA within extracellular vesicles (EVs) has recently been described as a mechanism that could contribute to this communication in filarial nematodes. It has been shown that these EVs are loaded with several types of RNAs, including microRNAs, leading to the hypothesis that parasites could actively use these molecules to manipulate host gene expression and to the exciting prospect that these pathways could result in new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Here we review the literature on the diverse RNAi pathways that operate in nematodes and more specifically our current knowledge of extracellular RNA (exRNA) and EVs derived from filarial nematodes in vitro and within their hosts. We further detail some of the issues and questions related to the capacity of RNA-mediated communication to function in parasite-host interactions and the ability of exRNA to enable us to distinguish and detect different nematode parasites in their hosts
Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative
The technological vision of smart urbanism has been promoted as a silver bullet for urban problems
and a major market opportunity. The search is on for firms and governments to find effective
and transferable demonstrations of advanced urban technology. This paper examines
initiatives by the UK national government to facilitate urban technological innovation through a
range of strategies, particularly the TSB Future Cities Demonstrator Competition. This case
study is used to explore opportunities and tensions in the practical realisation of the smart city
imaginary. Tensions are shown to be partly about the conjectural nature of the smart city debate.
Attention is also drawn to weakened capacity of urban governments to control their infrastructural
destiny and also constraints on the ability of the public and private sectors to innovate. The
paper contributes to smart city debates by providing further evidence of the difficulties in substantiating
the smart city imaginary
Diquark Bose-Einstein Condensation and Nuclear Matter
We study a possible transition between symmetric nuclear matter and the
diquark Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) matter at zero temperature. We find that
chiral restoration transition is first order and coincides with deconfinement.
We investigate various possible coexistence patterns which may emerge from the
first order deconfinement phase transition by assuming different values for the
critical deconfinement chemical potential. If deconfinement takes place at
higher chemical potential, there exists a mixed phase of nuclear and chirally
restored diquark BEC matter. This coexistence region extends over a large
density region for a bigger diquark BEC or a weaker diquark-diquark
interaction. For model parameters with heavy diquark in vaccum, phase
transition to diquark matter becomes of second-order. We also show that in the
case of precocious deconfinement, droplets of nucleons and droplets of chirally
restored Bose-Einstein condensed diquarks coexist surrounded by non-trivial
vacuum. We show that a early deconfinement and a weak repulsive diquark-diquark
interaction soften the equation of state. We propose a scenario in which
nuclear matter saturates due to the formation of the diquark BEC and
deconfinement phenomena. In this picture, instead of repulsive vector-meson
exchange the compressibility of the equation of state is related to a repulsive
diquark-diquark interaction. In general, we emphasize the importance of a
diquark BEC phase at rather low density before quark BCS-pairing transition.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures (eps), references added, Conclusion extended,
version to appear in Nucl.Phys.
Immune stimuli shape the small non-coding transcriptome of extracellular vesicles released by dendritic cells
Molecular Technology and Informatics for Personalised Medicine and Healt
Immune stimuli shape the small non-coding transcriptome of extracellular vesicles released by dendritic cells
Molecular Technology and Informatics for Personalised Medicine and Healt
Enhancing crop yields through improvements in the efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration
Published online January 2023The rate with which crop yields per hectare increase each year is plateauing at the same time that human population growth and other factors increase food demand. Increasing yield potential (Yp) of crops is vital to address these challenges. In this review, we explore a component of Yp that has yet to be optimised – that being improvements in the efficiency with which light energy is converted into biomass (ϵc) via modifications to CO2 fixed per unit quantum of light (α), efficiency of respiratory ATP production (ϵprod) and efficiency of ATP use (ϵuse). For α, targets include changes in photoprotective machinery, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase kinetics and photorespiratory pathways. There is also potential for ϵprod to be increased via targeted changes to the expression of the alternative oxidase and mitochondrial uncoupling pathways. Similarly, there are possibilities to improve ϵuse via changes to the ATP costs of phloem loading, nutrient uptake, futile cycles and/or protein/membrane turnover. Recently developed high-throughput measurements of respiration can serve as a proxy for the cumulative energy cost of these processes. There are thus exciting opportunities to use our growing knowledge of factors influencing the efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration to create a step-change in yield potential of globally important crops.Andres Garcia, Oorbessy Gaju, Andrew F. Bowerman, Sally A. Buck, John R. Evans, Robert T. Furbank, Matthew Gilliham, A. Harvey Millar, Barry J. Pogson, Matthew P. Reynolds, Yong-Ling Ruan, Nicolas L. Taylor, Stephen D. Tyerman, and Owen K. Atki
Structural sustainability appraisal in BIM
The provision of Application Programming Interface (API) in BIM-enable tools can contribute to facilitating BIM-related research. APIs are useful links for running plug-ins and external programmes but they are yet to be fully exploited in expanding the BIM scope. The modelling of n-Dimensional (nD) building performance measures can potentially benefit from BIM extension through API implementations. Sustainability is one such measure associated with buildings. For the structural engineer, recent design criteria have put great emphasis on the sustainability credentials as part of the traditional criteria of structural integrity, constructability and cost. This paper examines the utilization of API in BIM extension and presents a demonstration of an API application to embed sustainability issues into the appraisal process of structural conceptual design options in BIM. It concludes that API implementations are useful in expanding the BIM scope. Also, the approach including process modelling, algorithms and object-based instantiations demonstrated in the API implementation can be applicable to other nD building performance measures as may be relevant to the various professional platforms in the construction domain
Musgos acrocárpicos das matas de galeria da Reserva Ecológica do IBGE, RECOR, Distrito Federal, Brasil
Exponential growth, high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, and vaccine effectiveness associated with the Delta variant
SARS-CoV-2 infections were rising during early summer 2021 in many countries associated with the Delta variant. We assessed RT-PCR swab-positivity in the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study in England. We observed sustained exponential growth with average doubling time (June-July 2021) of 25 days driven by complete replacement of Alpha variant by Delta, and by high prevalence at younger less-vaccinated ages. Unvaccinated people were three times more likely than double-vaccinated people to test positive. However, after adjusting for age and other variables, vaccine effectiveness for double-vaccinated people was estimated at between ~50% and ~60% during this period in England. Increased social mixing in the presence of Delta had the potential to generate sustained growth in infections, even at high levels of vaccination
Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity
Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant
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